This invention relates to an assembled construction of the rear fork for a motorcycle.
Most rear forks for motorcycles are assembled by welding together a pair of left and right rear fork arms, a cross member connecting between the pair of rear fork arms, a pivot axle support member and an axle receiving member. However, when the assembling is by a conventional welding method, the weld lengths are long and accurate locating of each member prior to welding is required. This results in a poor working efficiency.
In order to reduce the weight of the vehicle body, many kinds of synthetic resin materials have been adopted recently as body structural members. Generally "fiber reinforced plastic" (hereinafter referred to as "FRP"), such as epoxy resin, polyester resin or the like mixed with carbon fiber, glass fiber or the like, is used as a structural member requiring strength because it is lightweight and excellent in tensile strength.
However, there is a problem that FRP has less compressive strength compared with metal materials and cannot be used directly to form a bearing portion to bear a concentrated load. Therefore, even though the use of FRP as rear fork forming material is effective in reduction of the body weight, consideration must be given to the foregoing problem for determination of the shape and construction.